


Versus The World

by camichats



Series: Imagine James and Sirius Prompts [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Background Lily/Remus, Dumbledore is dead, End of the war, Established Relationship, Eventual Happy Ending, Fake James/Lily, First War with Voldemort, Harry is Remus's Son, M/M, Peter runs away, Secret Relationship, Traitor Peter, Voldemort is dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 06:37:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11374629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Sirius is in Azkaban, Remus and Lily think he belongs there, and James is pissed because no one is paying attention to the obvious: Sirius would never betray him.





	Versus The World

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: “*dances around because you take prompts* Hi! I found this: "You know who would have never believed that Sirius could be a traitor even if he was unaware of the change in secret keepers? An incredibly dead James." So pretty please, would you write a fic in which James is the only one that believe that Sirius is innocent? It can be set whenever you want! Angst is fine as long as the end is fluffy (I love happy endings!). Thank you so, so much!”
> 
> Originally posted on [tumblr](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com/post/162496621615/dances-around-because-you-take-prompts-hi-i)
> 
> This was so much fun to write ^-^

When James woke in hospital, the first thing he said was, “Where’s Sirius?” He’d found his glasses on the bedside table, and after sluggishly sitting up and pushing them on, he looked around. Lily, Remus, and Harry were there, Remus clinging to both of them like a lifeline. He wanted to reach out and hug all of them, but he felt like his bones had been hollowed out and filled with cement, so he settled for looking. Sitting up had been more difficult than it needed to be, and he wasn’t in a hurry to anywhere. Provided there was a good reason he wasn’t seeing Sirius, that is.

Lily and Remus exchanged an uneasy look at his question, and his stomach plummeted to the floor.

_Don’t jump to conclusions, maybe he’s hurt or summat._ “Where. Is. He.”

Lily swallowed, and didn’t answer his question, as if there were any chance he wouldn’t notice. “Voldemort’s dead, but so is Albus-- he died before the Aurors could arrive. The war is officially over now, so that’s good. You’ve been out a few days,” she explained. “Got hit with a nasty curse, they had to keep you under for the pain. Peter was here earlier, but he’s helping search for Death Eaters, so he couldn’t stay long.”

“Is Sirius dead?” he asked, since apparently they didn’t want to come out and tell him.

“No,” Lily said, averting her eyes and looking completely uncomfortable.

“James,” Remus said cautiously, shifting the sleeping Harry in his arms, “you do remember what happened, don’t you?”

He furrowed his brow as he thought. “Voldemort… showed up at the house.”

“Yeah.” Remus and Lily’s faces were etched with expectant sadness, but James didn’t understand why.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“James,” Lily said, and James was starting to hate people saying his name like that, “Sirius was our secret keeper. If Voldemort found us, it’s because he told him, and he _did_ find us.” Her voice was soft, like she was breaking the worst news of his lifetime.

James glared at her. How could she even _think_ Sirius would do that? And why was Remus agreeing with her? “Sirius wouldn’t have told him shite.” He pushed the blankets off him and weakly swung his legs to the ground. The cold of the floor made him shiver, and he grit his teeth against the stab of pain it caused to his stomach.

He tried to stand and wouldn’t have gotten far even if Remus hadn’t been there to gently press him back down with a hand on his shoulder. “I know you don’t want to believe it, James, but it’s what happened. He betrayed you.”

James shoved Remus’s hand off, and stared at him, unable to name all the swirling emotions in him. “How can you say that. You _know_ Sirius, he would’ve rather died. Did you even bother to talk to him? I’m sure he would’ve told you what happened if you, you know, _asked_. Where is he? We can go together.”

“He’s in Azkaban, James,” Lily said and his heart stopped.

“What?”

“He’s in Azkaban, along with all the other Death Eaters they’ve caught.”

“Don’t call him that,” he snapped, eyes welling with tears. “He’s not one of them.”

“James-” Remus started.

“Stop saying my name like that!” James was ready to tear into the two of them for the mere consideration that Sirius was a traitor, but a Medi-Wizard arrived, effectively cutting him off before he could start.

“Mister Potter please lay back down.”

His hands clenched into fists.

The Medi-Wizard turned to Lily and Remus. “I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave for now, until he’s calm again.”

“I’m plenty calm,” James blatantly lied.

“I’m sure,” they said drily. “If you please,” they said, turning to Remus and Lily and motioning to the door.

They gave him a worried, lingering look as they left, that he studiously ignored.

“Mister Potter,” they sighed.

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled, reluctantly getting back in the bed. “When am I cleared to leave?”

They started doing something with their wand, but James couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to what it might be. “Tomorrow night, now that you’re awake. As long as you take it easy,” they added.

James nodded but-- judging by the Medi-Wizard’s sigh-- both of them knew he had zero intention of doing so.

The next day and a half was tense. James played at being happy for little Harry but was short with the boy’s parents. Remus and Lily seemed to understand, but it was still in the ‘he needs time to come to terms with the situation’ sort of way, so it only served to keep him upset.

“Did they even give him a trial?” he finally asked.

“No. They haven’t given any Death Eaters them, just thrown them in Azkaban to rot.”

“Lily. I love you, but stop calling him a Death Eater.” It was as nice as he was going to be. Personally, he thought his restraint was divine.

She opened her mouth to argue her point, but stopped, visibly holding herself back.

“What have they done with his things?”

“Nothing,” Remus answered. “They’re yours now.”

James had to close his eyes and take a deep breath. If he thought it would get better when he left St. Mungo’s, he was horribly wrong. Going to the Ministry was a bad decision, but he wanted to talk to Bartemius Crouch about getting Sirius out of Azkaban. It was like everyone wanted to pretend Sirius was dead. Shove him in a horrible place he didn’t belong and talk about him like he didn’t exist anymore. James was ready to fucking deck the next person that called him a traitor.

...It took about fifteen minutes. Another Auror-- one James knew from an assignment when he and Sirius had worked with him-- was spewing bullshit, and James didn’t feel the least bit bad about breaking his nose.

Scrimgeour hauled him to his office, furious. “What the hell was that Potter?” He continued without waiting for an explanation. “I know that Black was your partner, but you more than anyone should be angry with him.”

“And why is that, _sir_?” he spat, gearing up for a fight.

James stormed out of the room a few minutes later, jobless, livid, and thoroughly unsatisfied. During the time he packed up both his and Sirius’s desks, he managed to create a calm facade, solid enough to talk to Crouch, not that that went much better than talking to Scrimgeour. When Crouch said Sirius had been manipulating James into being his friend, it apparently wasn’t a good idea to ask how the buggering hell an _eleven year old_ was manipulative enough to be planning for a war with a threat none of them knew about yet.

Crouch had said, “He’s a Black,” as if that explained everything.

“Yeah he’s a Black, a Black who was in Gryffindor, and an Auror, and was bloody disowned for his beliefs!” It didn’t have any effect on Crouch, but after two minutes with the man, he wasn’t surprised.

James wasn’t having a very good day. Or week. He was about two days away from busting Sirius out of Azkaban.

He was very careful not to say that to Lily, Remus, or Peter when they got together that night, careful to not so much as hint at it.

“You don’t look like you’ve had a good day,” Peter said sympathetically. He looked nervous, as he always seemed to these days. James was glad for yet another reason to be happy that the war was over-- Peter didn’t deal well with stress, and he was so paranoid.

He almost felt bad about how aggressively he answered, especially considering he had been thinking the same thing. “Well let’s think here Pete. My boyfriend slash best mate got thrown in a literal hellhole, all our friends are convinced he deserves it, and no one cares that he, you know, didn’t do it or get a trial. I punched O’Leary for being a complete arse, quit my job, and probably convinced Crouch I’m a traitor because he’s a paranoid bastard. Oh, and everyone thinks me and Lily are together, so people keep mentioning that. All in all, I think the only that could make this worse is if one of us was dead, so yeah, I didn’t exactly have a good day.”

Peter blinked at him owlishly. “You- you and Sirius were together?”

“That’s all you took from that?” James asked incredulously. “And of course we are. I thought you knew.”

He shook his head and looked to Remus, who shrugged helplessly. “I didn’t know either.”

James frowned at them. “Seriously? We haven’t been subtle.”

“I thought you were just really good friends,” Lily added.

James was… perplexed. “How the fuck did none of you know? And what do you mean ‘really good friends’? We’ve kissed in front of you. Several times. We act like a bleeding couple!” None of them had a good response, and he let his head fall back on the sofa with a groan. “I can truthfully say,” he said slowly, staring up at the ceiling, “that I did not expect that.” He looked at them again. “Does this affect how you think about him at all? C’mon guys, this is _Sirius_ do you honestly think he’d betray me? You should know better than to think he’d support the Death Eaters at all, but- _me_?”

“I guess not,” Remus sighed. “But there’s no other explanation, James. If I thought for a second there was a way it couldn’t be him, I’d jump on it, but there isn’t.”

James thought about it. He hadn’t bothered before-- he knew Sirius didn’t do it, but he didn’t think about the how; he didn’t need proof. “What if they switched secret keepers? Only Sirius, Albus, and the other person would know, and with Albus dead…”

“Why wouldn’t he say something?” Remus asked, but not to discourage James like he’d been doing the past few days, more interested, hungry to find an excuse to agree with him.

“Maybe he did, but no one believed him. It’s not like there was an official setting for him to mention it,” he added bitterly. “We never told anyone Sirius was our secret keeper did we?” Lily shook her head. “They just assumed. So if Sirius thought the Death Eaters would assume the same thing, he could’ve switched to keep us safe.”

“Then what happened to the other secret keeper? He wouldn’t have chosen someone he didn’t trust,” Peter said, seeming skeptical.

“And why wouldn’t they have come forward?” Lily asked.

“They could be dead.” He shook his head. “We’re going to get nowhere with this. I’ll ask Sirius tomorrow.”

“What?”

“James, you can’t visit him, they’ll think you’re a traitor too,” Remus said, looking unnerved at the prospect.

“Well I would hope you’d tell them I’m not,” he said drily.

“It really doesn’t sound like a good idea, and they probably won’t even let you.”

“Pete, let me put it this way: I’m going to see him, whether they _let me_ , or not.”

Lily forcefully changed the subject, and they come back to it for the rest of the night. James was beginning to relax as they talked meaninglessly, not bringing up the war, or the countless good people who died, then Peter dropped his news.

“You’re moving to Germany?”

He nodded. “I know it’s sudden, but… I’ve actually been planning on this for the past couple months.” It was an understatement, they all knew. “With,” he swallowed, “everything that’s happened, I just don’t feel safe here, and I can’t relax, and I just-” he cut off, looking at the floor shamefully.

“Hey,” James said softly, putting an arm around his shoulders, “it’s okay. We’ll understand as long as you write us.”

Peter gave him a half-smile that had him grinning. “Can do.”

* * *

Everyone was out to make James’s life harder, he was sure of it. First, Scrimgeour had sent an owl, all but ordering James to come back (James sent back a reply telling him in explicit detail what he could do with that idea). It wasn’t a good idea to piss off the Head of the Auror Department, but James was full of bad ideas at the moment. Then, Lily had flooed to try and convince him not to go visit Sirius (except she refused to say his name), giving all the reasons she thought it would go poorly. Of course she was operating under the ridiculously incorrect assumption that Sirius was _guilty_ , so he didn’t pay her any mind.

And _then_ , they told him that he couldn’t go to Azkaban, citing some made-up rule about visitation. James eviscerated that attempt because he’d done his goddamn research before coming today. It’s not like visitors weren’t allowed, they just never did-- whether because the prisoner didn’t have anyone, or because no one voluntarily spent time around Dementors. Once he called their bluff, they said something about wands not being allowed, clearly thinking it would dissuade him. Instead, James shoved his wand flat into their chest without a second’s hesitation. After that they understood that they were going to have to let him go or risk him breaking in.

They took a boat across, his guide-- or whatever their title/job was-- looking supremely nervous, and not taking more than a single step closer to the main structure than he had to. He stuttered out a location and James took off before he finished speaking. He was sure he would’ve looked very intimidating if he hadn’t slipped on some moss.

James had to hold back a wave of rage when he neared Sirius’s cell, seeing the higher concentration of Dementors in this area. In what was surely the most stupid thing he’d ever done, he made physical contact with one to push it aside so he could get through, it was so crowded in the narrow hallway.

James doesn’t know how Dementors work, but something about him or the situation made the majority of them float a short distance away. His chest tightened when he saw Sirius, half-way between the door and the outside, obviously wanting to get away from the ocean spray but not wanting to get any closer to the Dementors than he had to. The floor was comprised of hard stone and a thick film of mud and grime that Sirius was covered with after his week here. James knelt on the ground, shoulder bumping the same wall that Sirius was leaning against.

“Sirius?”

His body stilled, to the point James was half-convinced he’d been petrified, before he took a careful breath. “James?”

An involuntary smile came to James. Gods but he’d missed his boyfriend. He hadn’t seen Sirius in over a month, and with the stress of everything else he hadn’t had time to be sad about it this past week.  “Yeah, love, it’s me.”

Sirius’s head came up sharply, eyes roving over James like he couldn’t believe he was here. He scrambled forward, but not so close that James could reach him on his own. “You’re alive,” he breathed, voice filled with wonder.

“‘Course I am, I’m too stubborn to be killed,” James said with a crooked smile, trying to ignore how wrong it was for them to be separated, for Sirius to be behind bars. James stuck his arm through the bars, reaching for Sirius and gesturing for him to come closer. “I can’t reach you back there, mate.”

His eyes filled with tears and he lurched forward, flush with the bars as he tried to get as close as he could to James, and hugged him. He was filthy, shaking, and smelled like death, but James wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. “I thought you were dead.”

“Nope. Hurt a little, but not dead.” He let a deep breath out and felt the exhaustion of the past few days weighing down on him. “I’m sorry I haven’t gotten you out yet. No one wants to listen to me, and they don’t care that you never got a trial, and it’s just-”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s _not_ okay Si, how can you say that? You’re in Azkaban for fuck’s sake, this is the antonym of okay, it has this exact situation described in the thesaurus.”

“But you’re alive,” he said, as if that changed everything. And for him, maybe it did. By this point, they normally would have let go of each other, but they hadn’t seen each other in weeks and Sirius had thought he was dead. James didn’t want to let go of him for the entire visit, and he was certain the sentiment was returned.

“I’m alive. And you’re alive, so this could be a hundred times worse.”

Sirius chuckled, sounding strained. “Yeah. I’m guessing you haven’t found Peter?”

James frowned, and pulled back a little. “What do you mean? Pete’s fine, I saw him last night.”

Sirius’s face contorted. “He’s the one that gave your location to Voldemort.”

“But… what?”

“We switched Secret Keepers, I- I thought I was too obvious, that you’d be safer if it was someone else, and he agreed, and Albus switched it didn’t he tell you?” Sirius had gone from angry to desperate and rambling in a matter of seconds, and if James wasn’t used to it, he’d have whiplash.

James shook his head numbly. “Albus is dead. Pe- he said he was moving, he’s running.”

“If he leaves, I’m never going to get out!”

“Yes you will. I’m not leaving you in here. If I- if I can just get you a trial, then you can request Veritaserum, and then you’ll be out.”

Sirius stared at him, but there was no hope there. “Crouch isn’t going to authorize that. I tried when they took me James, they aren’t going to listen; they want to throw every suspected Death Eater in here and forget they helped build a society where something this horrible got this far. They sure as hell aren’t going to admit they were wrong about me.”

“I’m going to get you out of here,” James promised.

“Don’t go doing anything illegal. I’m fine,” he lied, and James gave him a flat stare. They hadn’t been able to lie to each other since third year.

“You’re not, I’m not, and when has legality ever stood in our way. Are… are you sure it was Peter?” James asked hopelessly.

“I’m sure.”

James went back to hugging him. “How did everything get so buggered?”

“Well, I think it all started when the first wizard thought genocide was a great idea and it snowballed from there.” Neither of them said anything for a while. “Don’t do anything if it’s going to get you in here,” he said quietly.

“Si. I appreciate the thought. But we both know I’ll do whatever it takes.”

He sighed. “Yeah. I know. Be careful though. I love you, but I don’t want you to be my next-door neighbour for the rest of our lives.”

“Yeah. In your bed is a much better arrangement.”

**Epilogue**

James would be the first to admit that getting Sirius’s name cleared was a whole hell of a lot harder than it needed to be, and in his ever objective opinion, it took way too fucking long. The fortunate part, he grudgingly acknowledged, was that no one found out he’d broken Sirius out of Azkaban. Remus had known what James was doing, just because he knew that James wasn’t going to leave Sirius there if the process to get him out was taking months. He snuck Sirius out, started working on getting him what he should’ve had from the beginning, and snuck him back in the day of the trial.

Crouch had been deposed, and the new administration was going back, trying to fix all the previous oversights, which was the only reason Sirius got a trail. James tried to push Sirius’s date up, but the department was busy with other things. He wasn’t happy about it, but he understood.

They never found Peter, and honestly James was glad. He’d left them a note in Germany-- where he’d told them he was staying before they knew what he’d done-- apologising. Sirius was furious, but James… well. He didn’t want to see Peter again, and that included having him tried for what he’d done. Maybe it was hypocritical, but he didn’t want to think about it. Peter betrayed them, he had his reasons, and that was that.

It took time for them to trust Remus and Lily again, but Sirius was more willing to forgive than James was, and that helped. The rest of the Wizarding World could suck it. They were all imbeciles, who would rather an innocent man be in prison than out so they could have a false sense of safety.

James could never hold his bitterness for too long though, because then he’d see Sirius, healthy and smiling, and-- as per usual-- not giving a single fuck what anyone else thought.

“You know Jamie, we should get married.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“You need a reason other then our world-stopping, undying love?” He gasped, a hand over his heart.

“It would be nice, yes,” James teased.

“How about so the next time people falsely accuse me of betraying you, they won’t have a leg to stand on?”

James rolled his eyes. “They didn’t have a leg to stand on in the first place, but yes we should get married. Just in case.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is from a prompt driven blog at [imaginejamesandsirius](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com) on tumblr! Drop by, send in a prompt if you want more ;)


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